“UNCLE TIMMY”
“UNCLE TIMMY”
To kick things off, we start with a celebratory song, a “filk” song written by author, editor, and musician Gray Rinehart. He was toastmaster at LibertyCon 29, and a hard act to follow, let me tell you. To quote the Fancyclopedia III (see fancyclopedia.org): “Both a noun and a verb, filk refers to fan-written, fan-sung songs about science fiction or fannish themes and to the events, or filksings, where such music, known as filksongs, are performed by filkers. . . . [Filk] began as fannish parodies to the tunes of mundane songs. . . .” As is this one, made to memorialize Richard T. “Uncle Timmy” Bolgeo, who founded LibertyCon. When he retired from running the convention, he handed over the reins to She Who Must Be Obeyed, Jr., aka Brandy Spraker, his daughter. All he did after that was negotiate with the hotel, advise, lend a hand wherever needed, greet newcomers, and beat David Weber, Gary Shelton, Mark Paulk, Ann Robards, and others at Spades. . . . He will be remembered.
—TW
“Uncle Timmy” was, of course, a 2019 tribute to the man who started it all. I had written two LibertyCon-specific songs in the previous three years, and I thought of doing this one very soon after I heard that he had died. The prospect of LibertyCon without Uncle Timmy was daunting, even though I hadn’t interacted much with him personally because he was usually holding court with a crowd of people around him (or off playing Spades). At my first LibertyCon, for instance, I was the Master of Ceremonies but still he and I didn’t have an opportunity to chat beyond friendly introductions.
Writing a traditional filk song—adapting a recognizable tune with new words—can begin with the original song (e.g., “Dust in the Wind” seemed perfectly suited to be turned into “Leaf on the Wind”) or with a phrase or line that seems to fit an existing tune. I imagine someone could have done a song using Timmy’s real name: perhaps a rousing drinking song in which the chorus would end with a resounding, “Timmy Bol-ge-OH!” But on a walk around a local lake one day I realized that the four syllables of “Uncle Timmy” scanned almost exactly the same as “Sweet Melissa.” With that, I was off and digging into Uncle Timmy lore—since my time with him had been so limited—in order to make the song as fitting a tribute as I could. I wasn’t sure how the song would be received by his family and the audience, but in the end I was pleased that Brandy, Linda, and Timmy’s friends seemed to appreciate it.
—Gray Rinehart